Hey guys....remember me? After more years than I care to think about, it looks like I'm finally going to get back on a stable financial footing soon. That being the case, I desperately need to get boats on the water & start reconnecting w/ the great guys in Region III. TL McKenzie (McSpuds) is refitting my Baden (see elswhere in this forum), and the long neglected DKM Koln may soon also see the water. But I've been going over the rule changes and (very significant) the technology changes over the last few years. Looks like a surface-running Surcouf submarine may actually be viable using LifePO4 batteries. But she's not in the shiplist. So, here's what I have for her: 3250 long tons surfaced displacement 4304 long tons submerged 361 ft long = 30 in. at 1:144 29.5 ft beam= ~2.5 in. 23.75 ft draft= 2 in. So what would be her max weight and units? Note that she should have more than the 1 unit blanket-assigned to subs, as she was classed as a cruiser and carried twin 8" turreted guns. My arguement would be to give her (like all other 8" cruisers 2 units. This would allow 2 1-unit guns (spurt or standard) and a 1/2-unit pump. She's still be a 28-second pig, not very manueverable and with forward-firing guns, but would sit very low in the water and be something very unusual. I'd build her as a surface runner, perhaps with the diving planes fixed at a slight "down bubble" so that at full throttle she trims down to decks awash. Whatcha think?
They are not in the ship lists anymore it seems but the construction rules have submarines being Class 1; 28 sec. ships.
Yes, but the operative bit being submarine. Then the MWC list is a bit arbitrary, but it does have reasoning behind it and does work.
I have a fibreglass 1/144 scale Surcouf hull, with added depth. I honestly doubt you could find room for two 1.0 unit guns, enough co2, and a 1/2 unit pump.
I spent some time working on Mikey's 1/96 Surcouf hull today, and there isn't much room at the deck to fit stuff in. In 1/144 you could fit in a 16g cartridge and a narrow regulator like a Palmer's Pursuit RTB, but not much else. In fact that is the setup he is going to use to arm just one of the 8" guns.
I'd have to see what that size & shape looked like before I could really lock it down. 30" x 2.5" X 2+" is not very big. OTOH, I seem to recall somebody in the hobby building a working RC PT-boat in 1:144 just to show off. Just off the top of my head, I'd say using some of the new 3D printer tech to design lightweight gun mags that are shaped like the Surcouf's turret (so the entire gun sits on TOP of hull) could allow enough room in hull to make it workable. This is all more or less blue-skying anyway. I've got lots of other boat projects that are much further toward completion, much easier, and will be much more practical / battleworthy. But is fun to "what if"
You have a little precedent on your side from moving the large gun sub up in class. The Carriers Lex, Sara & Kaga started out with 8" guns and are a 3 unit ship unlike all the other carriers that are a 2.5 unit ship. I think Lex had three trip 8" turrets. I don't think having only two 8" guns on a 4500 ton hull will bring the sub up to 2.5 units. I can easily see making it 1.5 units. That would put it in line with protected cruisers, small light cruisers and big DDs. Using the CVs as an example, they moved up a half unit by mounting larger guns. Did any other subs mount a gun larger than 5"? Did any other subs mount two 5" or larger guns? Getting into class 2 is a lot of units for such a small ship. That's a lot of stuff to put in the hull.
WW-1 British "M" class mounted one 12" gun. (!!) USS Argonaut - V-class mounted 2x6" (one forward, one aft) I-400 only had single 5.5" gun
We discussed this at the weekend battle; the prevailing opinion was 'how would one fit enough gas into the small hull volume to fire TWO 1-unit guns?!'. Dropping the diving systems helps but it's still a very small space and a 3.5oz bottle won't fit, and a 16g cartridge probably won't empty both magazines. I'd be really impressed though! At 1.5 units it would be interesting; one gun and a half-unit pump. Even as a surface runner, the low freeboard would make kill shots hard to obtain against most submarines. That hangar and gundeck are superstructure. You'd have to go really light because they're so high up, but then Surcouf is pretty deep (relatively speaking). USS Argonaut had a pair of 6" guns, one forward, one aft. Also a legal convoy since she was modified to carry troops
The M class was fairly mad. There was a lot of craziness in the great war. The K-class comes to mind as well.
